No. 22 Men’s Golf Buoyed By Middle Round, Finish T-11th at Gate City Invitational
Yakola tops Quakers on the scorecard with first-career top-25 finish
from Bryce Johnson, Director of Athletic Communications, @Guilford College
GREENSBORO, N.C. – It was a strong couple of days for Holden Yakola (Mebane, N.C.) as he posted his first-collegiate top-25 finish individually to lead the No. 22 nationally ranked Guilford College men’s golf team, although they experienced trouble as a collective, finishing tied for 11th with a team score of 895 (+31) at the loaded Gate City Invitational on Monday and Tuesday at the Forest Oaks Country Club.
Monday’s conditions for the opening two rounds were sunny but hot and humid, with the thermometer approaching the 90’s although it yielded to a very pleasant Tuesday morning to finish the event. A preview of the venue that will play host to the 2027 Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) Men’s Golf Championship in April, Forest Oaks features a yardage mark of 7,120 as a par-72 course. Widely considered the first marquee event in Division-III golf, nearly half of the Gate City field was comprised of top-25 teams, with eight squads standing in Bushnell/Golfweek preseason poll, in addition to another four on the outside looking in receiving votes in the rankings. The top-ranked team topped the field as No. 2 nationally ranked Huntingdon College posting a team score at-or-below par in all-three rounds on their way to an 855 (-9) score. No. 9 Kenyon College followed up with a steady couple of days, and a strong close to swing 859 (-5) before upstart ODAC rival Shenandoah University picked up their second-straight great event to open the season, taking third with an 862 (-2) figure.
Yakola stood out atop the Quaker lineup from his first swing. Opening his first round on the fifth pin, he recovered from a bogey on seven and double-bogey on 10 by really excelling on the par-5’s with birdies on 11, 18, and four, and while a one-over on 16 prevented him from a par round, he was atop the Guilford card through one round. Monday afternoon was not as fortuitous, racking up four bogeys across the opening 10 flags, but he recovered. Cashing in consecutive birdies at the turn, first on the par-five 18th then on the first hole, he sliced his score down to just two-over at the end of the first day to lead the pack. The freshman opened Tuesday on the back-nine, and played par golf throughout it, but the front nine was more tumultuous, splitting a birdie and bogey on one and two, before birdies on four and six yielded to a double-bogey on seven and one-over on eight. Nonetheless, it was a successful encore for Yakola in his second-career event, finishing tied as the third-best competitor at the lengthiest flags, swinging five-under on par-fives and leading the team in pars with 36 en route to a 220 (+4) score and a tie for 25th place.
Braeden Gillen (Holly Springs, N.C.) followed up on the scoresheet for Guilford, recording 223 (+7) strokes to finish tied for 36th. It was a really tough open to the event for Gillen, who birdied on his starting hole, the fourth, but undid it with a two-over on five, before racking up another six bogeys before the round was done. He settled in nicely, though, finishing as the event’s top player on the afternoon 18. Gillen once again opened with a birdie on four and bogeyed on five, although that hole ended up being the first of nine-straight pins that saw him slice at least one stroke off his first-round score. A two-over on hole two did little to dampen a round that matched his career-best 18-hole score at three-under par. His final round opened with a difficult first nine, racking up a trio of one-overs and a single triple-bogey, but it ended up reflecting day one, as he settled largely into par golf, picking up his third birdie in as many rounds on four, went one-under again on seven, and finished with a solid final round at three-over.
Larsen Gallimore (Walnut Cove, N.C.) wound up as the number-three scorer, maintaining his early season trend of a lot of solid, par golf. Opening his event on the sixth flag, Gallimore bogeyed on two of his first three holes, then had a birdie, bogey, bogey stretch from 11 through 13, and later birdied on the first flag, but beyond that it was all breakeven golf through his initial-18, swinging two-over. His Monday afternoon was much of the same, a couple of birdies this time on 18 and two, intermixed with four one-overs, although he did have a double-bogey on four dragging him to four-below. His final venture on Tuesday was more par golf, returning to his round-one norm of 12 par pins, however he only got a single birdie to counter his above-par holes, while two-overs on one and seven put him six-over for the day. Now up to a team-leading 75 par pins through two events, Gallimore finished just one average hole behind Yakola for the team-high with 35, but without a concentration of under-even holes, he finished with a 228 (+12) score and tie for 53rd place.
The second-half of rounds held Gavin Peach (Charlotte, N.C.) back over the two days, on his way to a tie for 66th with a score of 231 (+15). Beginning on the fourth hole, he was excellent early with birdies on four, eight, and 11, and while they were offset by a bogey on nine and two-above on 12, he stood at par halfway through his first trip, though a trio of bogeys pushed him three-above at the end of his initial round. The script virtually repeated in his second round. A birdie on four and bogey on nine, the 11th pin flipped from a one-under to one-over, but he also shaved three strokes off his round one score on 12 to post a birdie and reach the midway point at even, however he swung three-over on 15 and one-above on 18 to finish the second round at plus-four and the day at a serviceable six-over. Peach’s final round was not fortuitous, though. Opening on 12, he went one-over on his third, fourth, and fifth holes of the day, racked up five bogeys on the front-nine after making the turn, and while he did finish his day with a birdie on 11, it was his first of the round as his score finished eight-over, though his final round would be tossed out thanks to his teammates.
Luke Wise (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.) rounded out the Quaker lineup and experienced a miserable case of the Mondays. Opening on the fifth hole, he birdied on his second flag, but would pile up nine bogeys the rest of the round to go eight-over to open his event, with that round getting discarded. Wise’s second trip was also thrown away after he went 12-over to finish a really tough day at the office. He did really well putting all that behind him on Tuesday, though, actually finishing even with Yakola for the team’s top third-round score at just one-over. He bogeyed on 15, three, and seven, but birdied on 18 and four while playing a bunch of par golf in between to finish just plus-one on the day. He would finish the event tied for 84th with a score of 237 (+21).
Guilford gets a near-month break before returning to the greens of Laurel Valley Golf Club in Ligonier, Pennsylvania for the Tartan Invitational, hosted by Carnegie Mellon University on October 12 and 13.
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